Automation in Food Manufacturing

Automation in factory-based food production and processing focuses on food quality and safety quantization and automatic process control. Sensors have been installed to automatically acquire (acoustic, image, pressure and temperature) data from the production line. Robots and other automatic systems will then be able to use those sensor data in various operations including sorting of ingredients, assembling of discrete food products, pick-and-packing and labelling of the final products, etc. Automation in food manufacturing can be achieved at different scales, i.e. from as small as an individual 3D food printer (machine automation) to as large as a smart factory (totally integrated automation). Automation in food industry can potentially allow for a more sustainable food production system, for making full use of the resources and avoiding food loss as much as possible. In this course, you will learn about automation in food manufacturing in both theoretical and practical aspects. This is a distance learning course.

• Describe the purposes and limitations of automation in food manufacturing

• Analyse how sensor data is acquired and processed for automation purposes

• Assess different automatic process control methods

• Apply simple data processing techniques such as visualization and classification

• Design possible ways to further improve automatic processes

• Assignment essay (20%) The student writes an individual essay after conducting literature research on a topic related to automation and/or process control in food manufacturing. The report should meet the minimum grade of 5.5. The student will receive feedback on how to improve the report in case the minimum grade is not met. In case of late submission or a failed report, the student can hand in a new report at the next re-sit.
• Written test with open questions (80%) Remote proctoring exam

• All information will be provided online.